Houston Astros Outfielder George Springer is on a Power Surge
Coming into the season, many “experts” all over the country deemed George Springer as a top option to have a breakout season in 2016. Houston Astros’ fans have watched him play for the last season and a half and can understand why. While Carlos Correa is getting all of the buzz this season (deservedly so), you could make an argument that Mr. Springer is every bit as talented.
The only problem: Springer is streaky. The kind of streaky that can catastrophically affect a ball club in a positive or negative manner. Hitting between two superstars, Springer is the one who ignites the offense. When he is struggling, the Astros as a team struggle. When he is hot, the Astros score and score a lot.
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If you had checked on April 15th, you would have seen that he was hitting a robust .205 on the season. Ever since his dramatic grand slam in the opening series he had been in quite a dry spell. Lately, he has begun to really pick it up, upping his average .064 point in the three games after that.
In his last two games, Springer is 5-8 with two long balls but most importantly only one strikeout. If he were to go on anything remotely close to his historic seven-game stretch back in May of 2017 (11-27 8 HR 15 RBI), the Astros offense would start rolling.
The best part about Springer is that while 2014 was a great year when it comes to power numbers, his shortened 2015 season might have been better as a whole. Bumping his average from .231 to .276, he was able to limit his strikeouts by not pulling off of the ball and being able to stroke it to the right side.
The boys at Talking Stros talked about Springer in this weeks show.
These last few games I have seen the 2015 version of him with the 2014 version power. If he can keep this approach at the plate, then the Astros might just have the best 1-5 in baseball.
Next: Colin Moran will be the Astros third sacker
Lately, we have seen the Springer we all know and love, and it’s very exciting. When he is hot he can carry a ballclub, and I don’t know if there is any player in baseball better than a streaking Springer. With the way the Astros started the season, this is exactly what we might need to help dig us out of this early hole.
**Stats from Baseball-Reference**